The association between early reports to Child Protective Services and developmental trajectories through middle childhood

AbstractThe current longitudinal study examined whether attachment states of mind and childhood maltreatment predict sensitive caregiving during infancy, early childhood, and middle childhood among a sample of 178 parents who were involved with Child Protective Services. Nearly all the parents had themselves experienced childhood maltreatment based on their reports on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire—Short Form (Bernstein et al., 2003) when their children were infants. Adult Attachment Interviews (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985) were administered to parents when their children were infants (M = 10.92 months, SD = 8.66). Parental sensitivity was rated based on observations of parent–child interactions at three time points: infancy, early childhood, and middle childhood. During infancy, dismissing states of mind of parents predicted marginally lower sensitivity scores than autonomous states of mind. In early and middle childhood, dismissing states of mind of parents predicted significantly lower sensitivity ratings than autonomous states of mind. Unresolved states of mind of parents predicted significantly lower sensitivity scores than autonomous states of mind only during early childhood. Childhood maltreatment was not significantly associated with parents’ sensitivity ratings at all three time points. Findings suggest that among parents with Child Protective Services involvement, most of whom had themselves experienced maltreatment, parents’ unresolved states of mind predict insensitive caregiving in early childhood, and parents’ dismissing states of mind predict insensitive caregiving from infancy through middle childhood.

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Narrative Abilities and Episodic Memory in School-Aged Children Followed by Child Protective Services

Children ◽

10.3390/children8100849 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 849

Author(s):

Sanmya Salomão ◽

Catarina Canário ◽

Orlanda Cruz

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Middle Childhood ◽

Child Protective Services ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Disruptive Behaviour ◽

Narrative Coherence ◽

Protective Services ◽

School Aged Children ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Narrative Abilities

The ability to narrate routine familiar events develops gradually during middle childhood, in increasingly higher levels of coherence and temporal cohesion. Improvements in episodic memory are also observed, reflecting children’s increasing ability to recall specific circumstances of past events and personal experiences. Even though several studies have evaluated children’s narrative abilities and episodic memory, little information is available regarding the children exposed to risks that justify their referral to Child Protective Services (CPS). The current study analysed children’s narrative abilities and episodic memory performance, according to the circumstances related to the referral to CPS. Event schema representation, narrative coherence, narrative temporal cohesion, and episodic memory concerning routine and specific personal events in family context were analysed in a sample of 56 school-aged children followed by the CPS in Portugal. Children referred to CPS due to disruptive behaviour presented higher episodic memory performance, compared to those exposed to domestic violence, neglect, and abuse. No significant differences were found between groups regarding narrative abilities related to familiar routine events. Results highlight the relevance of evaluating the adverse circumstances that lead to CPS referral, considering the levels of risk and danger involved, given its differential effects on children’s episodic memory development.

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Effects of Placement Type on the Language Developmental Trajectories of Maltreated Children From Infancy to Early Childhood

Child Maltreatment ◽

10.1177/1077559511427957 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 287-299 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Ann M. Stacks ◽

Marjorie Beeghly ◽

Ty Partridge ◽

Casey Dexter

Keyword(s):

Child Protective Services ◽

Developmental Trajectories ◽

Language Skills ◽

Kinship Care ◽

First Year ◽

Protective Services ◽

Expressive Communication ◽

Baseline Levels ◽

Placement Type ◽

Over Time

This study describes the developmental trajectories of language skills in infants with substantiated maltreatment histories over a 5-year period and evaluates the effect of three different custodial placements on their language trajectories over time: in-home (remaining in the care of the biological parent/parents), nonkin foster care, and nonparental kinship care. Participants included 963 infants reported to child protective services prior to their first birthday and whose maltreatment was substantiated. Results from covariate-controlled growth modeling revealed no significant placement effects. Across all groups, children’s auditory and expressive communication scores decreased significantly from Wave 1 (intake) in the infants’ first year to Wave 4, when children were about 3.5 years of age, then improved to baseline levels by Wave 5, when children were about 6 years old. Despite these fluctuations, children’s average language scores in each placement group remained below the population mean at each wave of the study.

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